Barb, “I don’t feel busy inside anymore” gives this reflection its center. The deck coffee, hydrangeas, garden blooms, beach chairs, and evening walks show how healing changes attention even while life remains full, allowing ordinary days to feel inhabited again. Bob’s growing ease also reveals how one person’s inner steadiness can alter the emotional weather of a home without a speech or plan. Grateful for the clarity and lived detail with which you present midlife as a season of recognition, presence, and shared peace.
I've been mentioning very similar things as well. I think a lot of us here are finding most happiness and joy in the simple things in life. I think people miss a lot when their minds are always somewhere else.
I think you’re so right. We spend so much time thinking about what’s next that it’s easy to miss what’s happening right in front of us. I’m learning to notice it more. And strangely, the smaller my life feels in some ways, the fuller it feels. 💛
Beautifully put. I would say that working for decades as a physician, I rarely had those moments. But, I would try. Pause before walking in to see a patient in the ER at 3 am to inhale the waning crescent of a moon. Faithfully reading at least a few pages of Harry Potter to my daughter at bedtime, even though dinner for me had to wait after evening rounds.
Wendy, this is beautiful. The image of you pausing to notice the moon before walking into the ER, and then making time to read to your daughter after rounds, says so much. Maybe we don’t always need long stretches of time to be present. Sometimes we just find these tiny places to tuck it into a very full life. Thank you for sharing this.
Barb, “I don’t feel busy inside anymore” gives this reflection its center. The deck coffee, hydrangeas, garden blooms, beach chairs, and evening walks show how healing changes attention even while life remains full, allowing ordinary days to feel inhabited again. Bob’s growing ease also reveals how one person’s inner steadiness can alter the emotional weather of a home without a speech or plan. Grateful for the clarity and lived detail with which you present midlife as a season of recognition, presence, and shared peace.
I've been mentioning very similar things as well. I think a lot of us here are finding most happiness and joy in the simple things in life. I think people miss a lot when their minds are always somewhere else.
I think you’re so right. We spend so much time thinking about what’s next that it’s easy to miss what’s happening right in front of us. I’m learning to notice it more. And strangely, the smaller my life feels in some ways, the fuller it feels. 💛
That sounds exactly right, actually.
Beautiful writing barb. The simplicity of life you described so beautifully touched my heart 💓
Thank you very much. That means a lot to me.
Beautifully put. I would say that working for decades as a physician, I rarely had those moments. But, I would try. Pause before walking in to see a patient in the ER at 3 am to inhale the waning crescent of a moon. Faithfully reading at least a few pages of Harry Potter to my daughter at bedtime, even though dinner for me had to wait after evening rounds.
Wendy, this is beautiful. The image of you pausing to notice the moon before walking into the ER, and then making time to read to your daughter after rounds, says so much. Maybe we don’t always need long stretches of time to be present. Sometimes we just find these tiny places to tuck it into a very full life. Thank you for sharing this.
It’s learning that it’s really the little things that count in the ordinary moments!🩷
Yes! I think I’m appreciating the ordinary moments more and more. Turns out they weren’t so ordinary after all. 💛